In other news, daily coronavirus infections in the U.S. have climbed almost 70 percent in the last week to a daily average of about 32,000. Some (mostly conservative) areas of the country aren't getting vaccinated and these are the consequences.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and NATO say state-sponsored hackers in China are responsible for a significant hack of Microsoft's email exchange servers. The Justice Department also filed charges against four Chinese hackers.
Finally, Boris Johnson's government is reportedly close to formally notifying the EU that they intend to break part of the Brexit agreement regarding Northern Ireland.
Deviating from the deal's so-called Northern Ireland Protocol is a risky step: its aim was to prevent Brexit from disrupting the delicate peace brought to Northern Ireland by the U.S.-brokered 1998 agreement that ended three decades of sectarian conflict.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who signed the 2020 Brexit deal, has been dismayed by the protocol which has imposed paperwork and checks that London says could prevent British food staples such as sausages going to Northern Ireland. [...]
The 1998 peace deal largely brought an end to the "Troubles" - three decades of conflict between Irish Catholic nationalist militants and pro-British Protestant "loyalist" paramilitaries in which 3,600 people were killed.
An open Irish land border is seen as crucial to the spirit of that deal by aiming to safeguard peace, free trade and travel on the island.
But that became a problem after the 2016 Brexit vote. The EU could not close the land border between Northern Ireland and Ireland but feared it could become a backdoor into the EU's single market.
Won't someone think of the sausages?